The Tijuana Cartel
The Tijuana Cartel (Spanish: Cártel de Tijuana or Arellano-Félix Organization or Cártel Arellano Félix - CAF) is a Mexican drug cartel based in Tijuana. The cartel was described as "one of the biggest and most violent criminal groups in Mexico". The Tijuana Cartel was featured battling rivals The Juarez Cartel in the 2000 motion picture Traffic. History Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo, the founder of the Guadalajara Cartel was arrested in 1989. While incarcerated, he remained one of Mexico's major traffickers, maintaining his organization via mobile phone until he was transferred to a new maximum security prison in the 1990s. At that point, his old organization broke up into two factions: the Tijuana Cartel led by his nephews, the Arellano Félix brothers, and The Sinaloa Cartel, run by former lieutenants Hector Luis Palma Salazar and Joaquin Guzman Loera, a.k.a. El Chapo. Currently, the majority of Mexico's smuggling routes are controlled by three key cartels: Gulf, Sinaloa and Tijuana —though Tijuana is the least powerful. The Tijuana cartel was further weakened in August 2006 when its chief, Javier Arellano Félix, was arrested by the U.S. Coast Guard on a boat off the coast of Baja California. Mexican army troops also were sent to Tijuana in January 2007 in an operation to restore order to the border city and root out corrupt police officers, who mostly were cooperating with the Tijuana cartel. As a result of these efforts, the Tijuana cartel is unable to project much power outside of its base in Tijuana. Much of the violence that emerged in 2008 in Tijuana was a result of conflicts within the Tijuana cartel; on one side, the faction led by Teodoro García Simental (a.k.a. El Teo) favored kidnappings. The other faction, led by Luis Fernando Sánchez Arellano (a.k.a. El Ingeniero), focused primarily on drug trafficking. The faction led by Sánchez Arellano demanded the reduction of the kidnappings in Tijuana, but his demands were rejected by García Simental, resulting in high levels of violence. Nonetheless, most of the victims in Tijuana were white-collar entrepreneurs, and the kidnappings were bringing "too much heat on organized crime" and disrupting the criminal enterprises and interests of the cartel. The Mexican federal government responded by implementing "Operation Tijuana," a coordination carried out between the Mexican military and the municipal police forces in the area. To put down the violence, InSight Crime states that a pact was probably created between military officials and members of the Sánchez Arellano faction to eliminate Simental's group. The U.S. authorities speculated through WikiLeaks in 2009 that Tijuana's former police boss, Julián Leyzaola, had made agreements with Sánchez Arellano to bring relative peace in Tijuana. With the arrest of El Teo in January 2010, much of his faction was eliminated from the city of Tijuana; some of its remains went off and joined with The Sinaloa Cartel. But much of the efforts done between 2008 and 2010 in Tijuana would not have been possible without the coordination of local police forces and the Mexican military – and possibly with a cartel truce – to put down the violence. The relative peace in the city of Tijuana in 2010–2012 has raised speculations of a possible agreement between the Tijuana Cartel and The Sinaloa Cartel to maintain peace in the area. According to Mexican and U.S. authorities, most of Tijuana is under the dominance of the Sinaloa cartel, while Luis Fernando Sánchez Arellano of the Tijuana cartel remains the "head of that puppet empire." To be exact, experts told InSight Crime that the peace exists because Joaquin Guzman Loera wants it that way, and argued that his organization— The Sinaloa Cartel —has spread too thin with its wars with The Los Zetas Organization and the Juárez Cartel that opening a third war would be inconvenient. The Tijuana cartel, however, has something their rivals do not have: a long-time family with business and political connections throughout the city. InSight Crime believes that this could explain why the Sinaloa cartel has left Sánchez Arellano as the figurehead, since it might be too costly for El Chapo financially and politically to make a final push. Moreover, the Tijuana cartel charges a toll ("piso") on the Sinaloa cartel for trafficking drugs in their territory, which serves as an illustration of the Tijuana cartel's continued hegemony as a local group. Despite the series of high-ranking arrests the cartel suffered throughout 2011–2012, its ability to maintain a highly centralized criminal infrastructure shows how difficult it is to uproot cartels who have long-established their presence in a community. Organization The Arellano Félix family was initially composed of seven brothers and four sisters, who inherited the organization from Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo upon his incarceration in Mexico in 1989 for his complicity in the murder of DEA Special Agent Enrique Camarena. Although the subsequent brothers' death and arrest in the 2000s (decade) are blows to the Arellano Felix cartel, it did not dismantle the organization which currently is led by the Arellano's nephew, Luis Fernando Sánchez Arellano. The Tijuana Cartel has infiltrated the Mexican law enforcement and judicial systems and is directly involved in street-level trafficking within the United States. This criminal organization is responsible for the transportation, importation, and distribution of multi-ton quantities of cocaine and marijuana, as well as large quantities of heroin and methamphetamine. The organization has a reputation for extreme violence. Ramon Arellano Felix ordered a hit which resulted in the mass murder of 18 people in Ensenada, Baja California, on September 17, 1998. Ramón was eventually killed in a gun battle with police at Mazatlán Sinaloa, on February 10, 2002. The Arellano Félix family has seven brothers: *Francisco Rafael Arellano Félix (born 24 October 1949) - Captured and released *Benjamín Arellano Félix (born 3 December 1952) - The Boss of the Tijuana Cartel Captured on March 9, 2002, extradited on April 29, 2011. *Carlos Arellano Félix (born 20 August 1955) - is not currently wanted as he is a plastic surgeon not involved in drug trafficking. *Eduardo Arellano Félix (born 11 October 1956), - Captured on October 26, 2008, extradited on August 31, 2012 *Ramon Arellano Felix (born 31 August 1964) - The Underboss of the Tijuana Cartel Deceased, shot by police in February 2002. *Luis Fernando Arellano Félix (believed to be born 26 January 1966) is not currently wanted. *Francisco Javier Arellano Félix (born 11 December 1969) - Captured on August 2006 They also have four sisters, where Alicia and Enedina Arellano Félix are most active in the cartel's affairs. The family inherited the organization from Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo upon his incarceration. Eduardo Arellano Félix was captured by the Mexican Army after a shootout in Tijuana, Baja California, on October 26, 2008; he had been the last of the Arellano Félix brothers at large. According to a Mexican official, Enedina's son, Luis Fernando Sánchez Arellano, has taken over the cartel's operations. His two top lieutenants were Armando Villareal Heredia and Edgardo Leyva Escandón. Leyva remains at large and Villareal was captured in July 2011. On November 5, 2011, Mexican troops arrested cartel lieutenant Francisco Sillas Rocha, who was reported to the cartel's number two leader, and some of his close associates. Experts argued that Rocha's arrest had put the Tijuana Cartel "on the ropes," though some differed on whether or not the arrest put "the final nail in the coffin" for the Tijuana Cartel. Activities The Tijuana cartel is present in at least 15 Mexican states with important areas of operation in Tijuana, Mexicali, Tecate, and Ensenada in Baja California, in parts of Sinaloa and Zacatecas. After the death in 1997 of the Juárez Cartel's Amado Carrillo Fuentes, the Tijuana Cartel attempted to gain a foothold in Sonora. The Oaxaca Cartel reportedly joined forces with the Tijuana Cartel in 2003. Fourteen Mexican drug gang members were killed and eight others were injured in a gun battle in Tijuana near the U.S. border on Saturday, April 26, 2008 that was one of the bloodiest shootouts in the narco-war between the Tijuana Cartel and The Sinaloa Cartel. On December 1, 2011, William R. Sherman, acting special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's office in San Diego, announced that the cartel had been annihilated and the Sinaloa Cartel now controlled a large number of the drug routes the Tijuana Cartel once had. On December 12, 2011, Tijuana Police Chief Alberto Capella Ibarra also announced that captured cartel lieutenant Francisco Sillas Rocha had confessed that the Tijuana Cartel and The Sinaloa Cartel had formed a truce and that the Tijuana Cartel was seeking to merge with the Sinaloa Cartel After Benjamín Arellano Félix plead guilty to racketeering and conspiracy to launder money on January 4, 2012, it was accepted that the Tijuana Cartel had greatly lost influence. It was also reported that the cartel had lost their former Tijuana hotbed to The Sinaloa Cartel. The clan of the Arellano Felix continues, although diminished after the capture of their leaders. Captures and trial In October 1997, a retired U.S. Air Force C-130A that was sold to the airline Aeropostal Cargo de México was seized by Mexican federal officials, who alleged that the aircraft had been used to haul drugs for the cartel up from Central and South America, as well as around the Mexican interior. Investigators had linked the airline's owner, Jesús Villegas Covallos, to Ramon Arellano Felix. On August 14, 2006, Francisco Javier Arellano Félix was apprehended by the United States Coast Guard off the coast of Baja California Sur. On November 5, 2007, Francisco was sentenced to life in prison, at ADX Florence, after pleading guilty in September 2007 to running a criminal enterprise and laundering money. Benjamín Arellano Félix, who was arrested on March 9, 2002 by the Mexican Army in the state of Puebla, Mexico, was extradited to the United States in April 29, 2011 to face charges of trafficking cocaine into California. He later pled guilty to racketeering and conspiracy to launder money, and was sentenced to 25 years in jail on April 2, 2012. Once that is served, he will be sent back to Mexico to finish another 22 years for a conviction there. On August 31, 2012, Eduardo Arellano Félix was extradited to the United States to face trial for racketeering, money laundering and narcotics trafficking charges in the Southern District of California.